Release of Hussein sons’ photos: Washington exposes its own barbarism

By Barry Grey25 July 2003

The world was subjected to a gruesome and barbaric spectacle on Thursday when
the Bush administration released photographs of the mutilated corpses of Saddam
Hussein’s sons, Uday and Qusay, ambushed and killed by American forces on July
22.

The American cable news networks wasted no time in displaying blowups of the
bloody heads and torsos of the dead men and beaming the images into homes across
the US and around the world. US government spokesmen and media commentators
could barely conceal their glee at the sight of the shattered bodies, and their
satisfaction over inflicting the pictures on a global audience.

Nothing the World Socialist Web Site could say would be a more
devastating indictment of the degenerates who wield power in the US and their
media accomplices than their own self-exposure. The overwhelming majority of
people around the world, and especially in the US, will feel only revulsion and
shame at this exhibition of sadism.

Whatever one thinks of the deposed Iraqi ruler and his sons—who were
undoubtedly guilty of reprehensible crimes—the actions of the Bush
administration in slaughtering Uday and Qusay Hussein and then gloating over
their dead bodies demonstrate that the US ruling elite has nothing to learn from
its enemies when it comes to savagery and contempt for human life.

Bush administration notables such as Paul Bremer, the American proconsul in
Iraq, and Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, justified the release of
the photos as a supposed boon to the Iraqi people. The aim, they said, was to
convince the Iraqis that Saddam’s sons and right-hand men were well and truly
dead. This, they claimed, would reassure the people that the Baathist regime was
finished and would not return.

Not only that. It would, said Bremer, encourage ordinary Iraqis to come
forward with information about the whereabouts of other Baathists (above all,
although Bremer did not name him, the still-at-large Saddam Hussein) and
demoralize those who are waging a guerrilla war against the American occupiers.
Rumsfeld claimed at a joint press conference with Bremer that the showing of the
photographs would save the lives of American troops.

Speaking in Philadelphia, Bush exhulted, “Now, more than ever, the Iraqis can
know that the former regime is gone and is not coming back.” The previous day,
Bush stood alongside Bremer, Rumsfeld and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Richard
Myers and boasted that the killing of Hussein’s sons meant the US military was
“on the offensive” in Iraq” against a “few remaining holdouts” of the Baathist
regime.

To the extent that Bush and company truly believe such claims, they reveal
the degree to which they are suffering from political dementia and
self-delusion. The display of American arrogance and contempt for human
sensibilities—let alone deeply felt cultural feelings about the desecration of
the dead—will only fuel the hatred of the Arab masses for the invaders and their
quislings within Iraq. Indeed, even as the photos were being broadcast, news
reports were circulating about the death of three more American soldiers in
Iraq.

Despite all of the “winning the hearts and minds” blather, it was impossible
to conceal a more ruthless motive behind the release of the photos—namely, to
intimidate and terrorize the Iraqi people and show in the most graphic manner
possible who is “boss” in the new Iraq.

There are indications that the pressure to release the photos came primarily
from the White House and the civilian leadership of the Pentagon, headed by
Rumsfeld, not the military. On Wednesday, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, the
commanding Army officer in Iraq, told reporters the military was reluctant to
release the grisly images. He was doubtless concerned about the ramifications of
issuing the photos for the safety of American soldiers on the ground.

But that evening, Rumsfeld told reporters, “There will be pictures released,”
and on Thursday he claimed responsibility for the decision to release them.
Significantly, the photographs were issued by Bremer, an appointee of the White
House, not by the Army.

Militarism and criminality

The fact that those who wield power in Washington are blind to the mass
revulsion that will arise in response to the showing of these photos highlights
the insular and degenerate character of the American ruling elite. These traits
are concentrated in the man who sits atop the government.

The political calculations of Bush and his associates, such as his chief
adviser Karl Rove, are of the most crude and backward sort. It is no
exaggeration to say they reflect a criminal mentality.

Bush’s inner circle was intimately involved in the decision to massacre the
Hussein sons and release the photos of their corpses. They believed that such a
“success” would reverse the unfavorable political momentum of recent weeks,
which have seen a mushrooming controversy over administration lies, mounting US
casualties in Iraq, and a failing economy—the combined effect of which has been
reflected in plummeting poll numbers for Bush.

The New York Times reflected the thinking in the White House in a July
24 article headlined, “Deaths of Hussein’s Sons Allow Change of Subject.” The
author wrote: “With the deaths of Saddam Hussein’s sons on Tuesday in Iraq, a
bad political month for President Bush got palpably better.” The author went on
to write that “privately, advisers to the White House said the development
marked an important turn of fortune...” He quoted a top Republican adviser as
saying, “But the death of the Hussein brothers has a tactical political meaning
because it changes the subject from the 16 words in the State of the Union.”

Role of the media

It will come as no surprise to those—the vast majority—who retain a sense of
humanity and have not lost their political bearings that the American media
played a particularly despicable role in these events. On Thursday morning,
Jerry Nachman, the editor-in-chief of MSNBC, the cable news network jointly
controlled by NBC and Microsoft, indulged in commentary with overtly racist
overtones while photos of the shattered corpses played across the TV screen.

Nachman justified the showing of the photos on the grounds that the US was
obliged to tailor its tactics to the mentality of the Arab people, who, he
declared, routinely witnessed public executions and had come to expect public
beheadings. He was seconded by the pundit of the moment, Con Coughlin, author of
a book entitled Saddam: King of Terror. Coughlin opined that the display
of the photos would “win respect for the Americans” in the Arab world.

On CNN, moderator Wolf Blitzer opened up the telephone lines for comments
from the public, and was taken aback when the first caller denounced the
broadcast of the photos as a moral abomination, and reminded him that among
those killed in the American assault on Tuesday was the 14-year-old son of Qusay
Hussein, Mustapha. “Why don’t you show his photo too?” she demanded.

It should be recalled that during the US invasion, the Bush administration
publicly denounced the Arabic network Al-Jazeerah for displaying photos of
American soldiers killed and taken captive by Iraqi forces, calling it a
flagrant violation of international law. The White House demanded that US media
outlets refuse to broadcast or publish the photos, and the major media meekly
complied.

The contrast to the media’s current role in emblazoning the photos of the
dead Hussein brothers at the behest of the government only underscores its
corruption and subservience to political reaction and the Bush White
House.